Younes Kaboul was all smiles after a winning return to action at Newcastle.

And his mood was a complete contrast to those two starts – we lost at St James’ on that occasion, and at City in November – after goals from Emmanuel Adebayor (2), Paulinho and Nacer Chadli secured a 4-0 victory.

“That felt good,” beamed Younes, who has now featured 115 times for us in all competitions. “I’m delighted and I want to thank everyone who has supported me, the fans, the staff, everyone.

“We came here to get a positive result but we didn’t expect to win 4-0. To be fair, the lads gave everything, we were aggressive – in a good way, of course – and we scored the goal and kept the clean sheet. It’s all very good.

“We need performances like this to stay up there. We need to be strong, mentally strong as well and to keep our concentration and we’ll be okay.”